Husayn, the Grandson of Muhammad: Contemporary Reflections on the Struggle for Justice

C T R Hewer, Husayn: contemporary reflections, page 1 Husayn, the grandson of Muhammad: contemporary reflections on the struggle for justice This short book was written to contribute to a conference scheduled for September 2020 in London. The theme was to make the life and example of Husayn, the grandson of Muhammad, better known to the widest possible audience. As the story unfolds, each section begins with some discussion points to draw out elements from what follows. With profound thanks, I acknowledge the contribution of Shaykh Mohammad Saeed Bahmanpour, who read and commented on each section, helped to unpick knotty questions and improved the translation of many quotations. Few people in world history have been so important that their names live on for centuries. How many events are of such significance that they are commemorated every year by tens of millions? What does it say when people are prepared to risk their lives to be able to take part in such acts of remembrance? Such a person was Husayn, the grandson of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam. The event was the terrible massacre in 680CE when he was killed along with seventy-two companions. Yet this event is thought of as a victory. A victory for justice and truth. A victory to show that the purity of the message brought by the Qur'an and given to Muhammad must be defended at all costs and not defiled by those not worthy of it. Something had gone horribly wrong in the infant Muslim community. Here was the grandson of the Prophet being killed by those who claimed to lead that community, not even fifty years after Muhammad’s death. How could such a catastrophe happen? As the grandson of Muhammad, who had been loved by his grandfather, who always wanted to have him nearby, all Muslims have great love and respect for Husayn. His killing is not a sectarian issue, one group of pious Muslims against another. It was the action of corrupt, tyrannical individuals who had captured the leadership of the Muslim community. Muslims, both Sunni and Shi'a, find that many of the leaders of this Umayyad dynasty, which ruled the Muslims from 661 to 750, were unworthy of that office and were far away from the ideals and practices of Islam as taught by the Qur'an and Muhammad. The massacre took place on the tenth of the Muslim month of Muharram, the first month of the Muslim calendar, at a place called Karbala in Iraq. Shi'a Muslims, who have a special love for and devotion to Husayn, who has a unique and revered place in their understanding, will spend the first ten days of this month in deep mourning remembering those events that culminated in the massacre. This is not just a season of mourning but also one of self-reflection and rededication of their lives to the ideals by which Husayn lived and for which he died. This comes to a climax on the tenth day, the day of the massacre itself, the Day of Ashura. Throughout the world, wherever there are Shi'a Muslims, this will be a day of solemn lamentation and rededication of themselves to be worthy to be called the followers of Husayn. This is followed by a period of forty days of subdued mourning, during which no weddings or other festivities take place. The whole season comes to an end on the fortieth day, Arbaeen, when millions of people converge on Karbala to pay their respects to Husayn and his stand for uprightness and justice. This pilgrimage to Karbala on Arbaeen goes way back into history; it commemorates the visit made forty days after the event by members of the To verify the authenticity and accuracy of this document download it direct from the website: www.chrishewer.org Copyright © 2020 C.T.R. Hewer C T R Hewer, Husayn: contemporary reflections, page 2 family of Husayn who survived the massacre. During years of persecution, people took back roads and travelled by night to avoid those who would kill them. Many will walk the fifty miles from the city of Najaf, which contains the shrine of Husayn’s father, to Karbala. Others walk even greater distances from Iran or even from India. In recent years, the number of pilgrims has been approaching twenty million, making it the largest annual gathering on earth. It is a monumental achievement of the communities through which they pass, that the pilgrims are given food, drink and first aid; places are found for them to rest and sleep. All in an atmosphere of peace and harmony. The history of humankind has witnessed many tragedies; the massacre at Karbala is not unique. It shows us the depths to which human beings can sink. It shows us also the length to which people are capable of going for the sake of their high ideals, for the sake of the just cause in which they believe and out of pure love and devotion to God. The martyrdom of Husayn and his companions stands head and shoulders above such tragedies in the history of Islam. We might reflect upon the status of Husayn, the devastation of his family, what would have happened if the stand had not been taken and the brilliance of the beacon that was lit on that day to show a way for all men and women to follow. As the story unfolds, there is much here upon which we can all ponder. As we might expect, the vast majority of those who make the Arbaeen walk are Shi'a Muslims, but Muslims of all traditions take part on this day. Not only Muslims, but people of other religions and people who belong to no faith community. A wide range of people have been inspired by the example of Husayn, from Gandhi to Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. It is a fundamental principle of religion that great religious figures do not belong to their own community alone but, because they belong to God, they belong to all humankind. Husayn, the hero of Karbala, is worthy of consideration by women and men of every age and place on earth – and that is the inspiration behind this short book. Who was Husayn? Every one of us is born into a certain context. We are born at a time and place, and into a certain family. Many of the influences of our early life just seem natural. What part did our parents play in shaping the way that we think and act? If we were lucky enough to know our grandparents, what part did they play in giving us a set of values, a way to live our lives? If you think back though, how much were you aware of this at the time? Often our characters are shaped before we really know what is happening to us. What must it be like though to be born into a particular role early in life? Maybe we were born into a farming family, when it was an automatic assumption that we would take over the family farm. Maybe we had parents who were doctors or teachers; naturally we would feel the call to follow them. As a great philosopher once said, “Life can only be understood looking backwards, but it must be lived looking forwards.” To understand ‘Who was Husayn?’ we need to begin by looking at the family from which he came. To verify the authenticity and accuracy of this document download it direct from the website: www.chrishewer.org Copyright © 2020 C.T.R. Hewer C T R Hewer, Husayn: contemporary reflections, page 3 Husayn’s grandfather was Muhammad, who was to become the Prophet of Islam. Muhammad was born in the year 570CE into a family of merchants living in the city of Makka in the Arabian peninsular. As a young man, he learnt the family business and established a reputation for being trustworthy and honourable. Makka was a city associated with Abraham. He and his son Ishmael had built there the ka'ba, a simple cuboid building built for the worship of God alone. The Arabs of that area had followed the religion of Abraham and Ishmael. They came to the ka'ba on pilgrimage to worship God. About four hundred years before the time of Muhammad, idol-worship spread down to Makka from the ancient civilisation around Syria. Muhammad came from a family who had never worshipped idols but believed that there is only one God. He was a religious seeker, always in search of deeper understanding of the one God in whom he believed. By the time that he was twenty-five, Muhammad had established a reputation as a reliable and efficient merchant. He attracted the attention of a rich widow called Khadija. She had inherited her husband’s business but looked for a manager to go on camel-train journeys carrying her merchandise to faraway markets. She employed Muhammad and was so impressed by his character that she asked him to marry her. They were in a monogamous marriage for twenty-five years until Khadija died. Muhammad’s uncle had a young son called Ali. He came to live with Muhammad and Khadija. He was an established member of the household and so his character was trained by them both. Muhammad, whose mission was to lead people back to the purity of the faith of Abraham, received his call to prophethood in the year 610. This was when the Qur'an started to be revealed to him. It continued to be sent down from God in small portions until shortly before his death in 632.

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